These photos are of Mischa Barton fronting an ad campaign for an e-cigarette called Vapestick. She likely needs the money. You may have heard that Mischa’s Beverly Hills home is in foreclosure after she missed more than five months of mortgage payments totaling over $100,000. She’s been trying to sell the home since 2010 and has also attempted to rent it out for $35,000 a month with no takers. So she may have decided to let the home go into foreclosure rather than continue to pay when she was underwater on the mortgage. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Mischa has money issues. In 2010 she was sued by her landlord in NY for nonpayment of rent.

Mischa’s career hasn’t really worked out as planned. While her other O.C. costars have found steady TV gigs and parts in film, she’s still struggling. Her IMDB is full but it looks like she’s mostly doing B movies. That could be because of her highly publicized substance abuse problems including a DUI in 2007 and a psychiatric ward stay in 2009, which she blamed at first on the medication for having her wisdom teeth removed, but later admitted was a full breakdown. Mischa might not see her career problems as the result of her personal issues, as she just said that she regretted taking the role that made her famous, Marissa Cooper on The O.C. Here’s what she told UK’s Metro about it:

Mischa Barton gave up caring what people thought of her a long time ago after admitting if she knew what she does now she would have never set out for teen stardom in The O.C.

The 28-year-old issued a warning to other young Hollywood stars to keep their love lives under cover during an exclusive chat with Metro.

‘Probably not,’ the British-American star mulled on whether she’d take up the role again after her life derailed following fame in The O.C.

‘It’s something I came so close to not doing. I had a really great thing with film. People say be grateful for what you have but it certainly not the kind of thing I was expecting it to be…I’ve kind of seen it all.’

The aftermath saw her arrested for drink-driving and claims she was sectioned in 2009 following a trip to the dentist.

Asked if she cared about her reputation, Barton exclaimed: ‘Clearly not!’

‘That would really do your head in if you were thinking like that. I just like to be seen for the hard-working actress that I am and not for a bunch of extraneous press. In general people are super quick to harbour on the gossipy stuff and less on how much work goes into it.’

She admitted: ‘It’s tough. It’s really tough when you are young in this business. People blow a lot of hot air at you. That’s the main thing. Keep your head on your shoulders – even when you think your head is on your shoulders, sometimes it isn’t!’

‘It’s just one of those things when you are growing under a microscope and changing and that evolution is human. That humanity aspect means flaws – which people don’t want to see. Keep your private life private to the greatest extent that you can,’ she warned. ‘People have this insatiable appetite for it – so how far can you go with that?’

Barton told how it has been hard not to lose her cool over the jibes over her chaotic world.

‘There’s tough balance in being a nice person about it and becoming too closed off and not nice,’ she said.’

The star also insisted she had earned her stripes after spelling out the road to fame is a trudge.

‘People think they are overnight successes even when tonnes of blood, sweat and tears and years of ground work goes into it,’ she explained. ‘Which I find strange about society in general. They think it’s an instant thing where you work really hard for these things.’

First of all, she’s only 28 now? I thought she was in her 30s already. Mischa sounds like Lindsay Lohan to me, if Lindsay were about 50% more sober and articulate. There’s a lot of defensiveness here. This isn’t the first time that Mischa has said she regrets doing television, in 2009 she said that she needed to get away from network TV, but that was right after her show, The Beautiful Life on The CW, was canceled. (It was an Ashton Kutcher production and it was a mess.) So she has regrets, but is she saying that her breakout role is to blame for the way things are turning out for her instead of taking responsibility for her choices? It sounds like that to me. I could be wrong, she could be saying that things started to derail for her after that point and she wonders what would have happened if she didn’t take that role.

These Vapestick ads are decent, I like her styling, it’s very “late fall boho.”

Photos credit: Vapestick and FameFlynet. Paparazzi photos are from 6-20-14.

She pulled a Katherine Heigl back in 2005, during season 3 of The OC. I remember reading at the time that the cast had a contract for 8-10 seasons, and since she couldn’t break it, she started going to work late, didn’t memorize her lines, etc, so the network would fire her. That’s what happened and what she wanted.

I’m sorry if sound mean or bitter, but she had it coming. Not only it ruined her career, but it also killed the show. How would OC keep going without the second main character? Most people who liked the show think it was a shot in the foot killing her off, but they had no choice.

She was also dating Brandon “Greasy Bear’ Davis, who looked like Fat Elvis at the time. Maybe she thought she could marry him and be a socialite. I think her downward spiral began when she got involved with that guy.

She was actually semi-respected prior to the OC in indie film and in the NY acting community, but then she got that show, got famous, and lost her damn mind with partying.

Every minor cast-member on that show has come forward since then to say she was awful, in addition to her other costars. I believe that’s why a lot of them struggled to find success for awhile — their names were pretty burnt through the gossip.

She was part of the clique Paris/Nicole who were notoriously bitchy & vicious to other females.

There were many many stories about Mischa being on some Regina George trip; letting it be known she did not think you were worthy of being in her presence in clubs, parties, events, even on the damn street!

Jason Preistley’s memoirs about his encounter with the then hot Mischa says a lot. LOL

“She admitted: ‘It’s tough. It’s really tough when you are young in this business. People blow a lot of hot air at you. That’s the main thing. Keep your head on your shoulders – even when you think your head is on your shoulders, sometimes it isn’t!’”

I feel like she was kind of indirectly admitting that she was a complete ahole here. Karma’s a bitch huh, Mischa?

She partied her brains out and treated people badly, she ruined her own career – not the TV show. Not only did she run with Paris and Nicole, she dated BRANDON DAVIS. She willingly dated Greasy Bear and after that moved on to Cisco Adler. That group may have partied hard and enjoyed a lot of tabloid fame in the early 2000s, but its no coincidence that the only one of them to have a real, long term career is the only one to clean up their act (Nicole Richie).

Mischa Barton tried to do this to my group of friends at the Jane hotel in NYC a few years ago, I guess it was when she was shooting that ashton kutcher show. We laughed at her, and she got so mad! She was so pissed that we “nobodies” were at first completely uninterested in her, and then openly mocked her to her face. It was so funny, we laughed and laughed and laughed. She’s as awful, and ugly, and poorly dressed, and frumpy, in person as she is in pictures and articles haha. That was a fun night! Thanks for the cheap laughs has been!

If that’s the case then it really makes it seem like she still hasn’t come to terms that her career is over because of her. You can say “oh she was young” but, that doesn’t give you carte Blanche to act like a twat. Your career is over because you were an arsehole and treated everyone like sh-t. You got exactly what was coming to you and instead of acting like an adult, you lost a job because you were too spoilt to handle it like a grown up. Those are all done from her own making. Maybe when she comes to terms with the fact that she’s the reason she is where she is now, people might take pity on her, but she still seems like a spoiled child.

And as funny as Nicole Ritchie can be sometimes, she is very much a mean girl. Even on her show she’s still one of those people that looks like they take no blame for their actions. On the Simple Life she was such a devious little sh-t and at 30 she still is. I wonder how a grown woman with two kids can still be so immature. Doesn’t there come a time when you just need to grow up and act like a woman?

It’s a shame – she was/is SO beautiful. Her face is stunning. I wish she had better management because she could have, at the very least, a Blake Lively career. She’s as terrible/non-magnetic of an actress as Lively and she has the body to wear the same kind of clothes (although she is more modelsque than sexpot).

Also- as a HUGE S1-2 OC fan… I will never forget those episodes. The rest of the show was awful. But Ryan and Coop forever!

Mischa was actually the first choice for Blake Lively’s role in Gossip girl. She could have her career, although Blave seems to have a better PR team. But she thought she was too good for tv. She even left the O.C. after 3 seasons for her “film career”. A film career which was always made of B movies. Ironically, she then returned to tv but “beautiful life” was quickly cancelled. With Gossip girl she would have enough money by now,and she could have kept her house, but she was always delusional about her “talents”.

Back then, she was very pretty, stylish and I think she had it, but girlfriend can’t act and now she has lost her spark (and a lot of her beauty, imo) because of her past addictions and partying. I wonder what she thinks when she sees Blake. She probably thinks she would be a movie star if it wasn”t for a teen show. Another “tv girl” syndrome like Jessica Alba or Biel: they want to be in movies even they lack talent, screen presence or charisma. They even prefer to be in terrible movies or not working for several years rather than coming back in a tv serie.
And then there is Elisabeth Moss, who is talented and very happy to work in tv shows and doing quality work… Good for her, I hope she got a lead role in true detective.

I feel terrible for agreeing, but it is true. She used to be sooo beautiful when she was younger, now she is barely recognizable and it is not from natural aging, imo. Her years of HARD HARD partying and drinking really caught up to her physically.

Is she for real saying she should have never done the OC? The OC made her rich and famous. Had she been grateful for what she had and didn’t walk away from the show before the last season was finished, I think she would have had more career opportunities. Instead, most people saw her as ungrateful and belligerent for walking away from, and then trash talking, the OC. And then the non-stop partying and hanging out with very questionable people certainly didn’t help.

For a while there I thought maybe Mischa was getting her life back together. Definitely does not seem like it . People like her and Lindsay Lohan make me sad. They had SO MANY opportunities, and they threw it all away for drinking, drugging, and an entitled attitude.

Sorry but Blake is a much, much kinder person than Mischa by all accounts. I know she’s popular to hate around here, but I’ve never heard a word about Blake treating people badly.
Mischa got way to big for her britches and it came back to bite her in the ass.

As far as her being able to pull off the same outfits as Blake..well, we can agree to disagree on that one.

We didn’t say Blake wasn’t nice, just that some time ago, Mischa was Blake Lively without the vogue covers. She was the beautiful it girl, popular for her style and for being the lead on a teen show.
And I think I made a mistake, apparently Mischa was offered the role of Georgina Spark. Whatever… I remember when I watched the first two seasons of gossip girl when I was a teen, it was bad but fun and watchable. It also became terrible really fast.

I remember reading several Mischa’s interview and she sounded like a snob. And she had a reputation to be really rude. I agree than Blake is a lot better and she seems sweet. Although I cringed a lot with her website “preserve”, it seems so pretentious. Her writing is so bad, she seems to have no clue.
There are also rumors that Blake isn’t very nice with her staff who work on her website. But it’s just rumors and blind items, so I take with a grain of salt.

Not the Serena part – they wanted Mischa for Georgina Sparks. Which is actually kimd of surprising that Josh Schwartz would want to work with Mischa again at all, but obviously she declined. Then again, if you noticed anything about that show, they chose people that didn’t exactly have to stretch themselves for their parts. The choice of Michelle Trachtenberg to fill the part didn’t exactly break that pattern.

TOK
I can attest to Blake’s kind, lovely personality. She was absolutely wonderful when I met her and stopped to sign autographs before we all went to a restaurant for a premier after party. She was charming and sincere and I cant hate on her even though it is popular to do so.
Preserve however makes me do a slow eye roll (ala Tina Fey “oh brother”)

She was on top of the world for awhile, during OC. She’s only 28 and has already fallen so far. I thought she was a pain back in the day but maybe it was her drug problem. Hope she stays sober. Should she keep trying to make a comeback, or should she move to Boise and start a dog grooming business?

Ummmm, what film career? Admittedly, I don’t follow her but the only thing I remember her from pre-OC is a non-speaking bit part in the Sixth Sense.

Just admit that you got greedy and left a regular gig because your ego and ambition exceeded your talent level. Otherwise you’re going to have accept doing ads for crap like Vapestick and appearing in SyFy level movies.

She also had a bit part as an affected child actress in Notting Hill.
“Any favorites among your 22 films?”
“Working with Leonardo”
“DaVinci?”
“DiCaprio”
“Ofcourse. And is he your favorite Italian director?”

Haha, yes, I love this movie too!!! I loved the scenes where William has to pretend he is a journalist to see Anna Again.
“The readers of Horse and Hound will be relieved”

‘I enjoyed the movie very much. I was just wondering, did you ever consider having more horses in it?’
Anna Scott: “Well, we would have liked to. But it was difficult, obviously, being set in space’.
XD

If most of the romcom, romantic comedies could be that good or at least watchable. Sigh…

I think Rachel Bilson would disagree. That girl knows her niche and seems rather levelheaded. I love Hart of Dixie, it’s so fun and cute and it’s not pretending to be anything else. I just like watching her. I never really liked watching Mischa Barton. Maybe THAT is the reason her career tanked.

ITA. I was just thinking, would I watch a tv show starring Mischa Barton? I don’t know if she’s a good enough actress to star in her own show. Maybe as the bitchy sidekick/villain in some Two and a Half Men style sitcom. THAT is probably her niche.

It’s surprising that Bilson carved out a career for herself because when I first started watching The OC, I thought she was the worst actor on that show. But as the seasons progressed, she seemed to relax a bit and her chemistry with Brody was undeniable.

I’m happy for her. I have an unhealthy obsession with teen dramas and I always have a bit of a soft spot for the actors that start off on those shows.

It’s funny how every generation has their “teen show”. I joke that my older cousins show was 90210, mine (and my friends) was Dawson’s Creek, and my younger siblings show was the OC (and yes, I loved the OC too LOL).

Mischa and Lohan are really similar to me. Both think they’re much better than they are, and as actors, choose “obvious body language” and rush into their next lines. People laud Lohan for her wasted talent, but honestly, not great. Even in parent trap, exaggerated, not really on with comedic timing (which she gets props for, but have you ever laughed st one of her lines in mean girls? Remember one of her lines even?). Mischa is even worse though, and terribly wooden. Maybe she and Lohan use “should have stayed in film” and “had horrible legal luck” as reasons they tell themselves they failed, because knowing they’re actually awful at the only thing they can do is to much to handle.

Bilson seems to have truly grown up and matured, whereas Mischa still seems to be bitter about the past . I keep meaning to watch Hart of Dixie on Netflix. My husband is going away for a boys weekend soon, so maybe I’ll binge watch it then.

Yes – I am under the impression it was her attitude, ego, and partying that cost her the career she wanted, not because she went into TV instead of film.
I never really watched more than a few episodes of that show, but was totally impressed with Ben McKenzie in Southland.

Mischa partied HARD. And she was not a nice lady. The drugs and alcohol took their toll on her lovely face, and her attitude killed her career. People groan when they hear her name not because The OC was embarrassing, but because she was just all over the tabs with her partying with Paris and Lindsay. Sad that she still hasn’t really learned her lesson.

She was treated so badly by the press when it came to those cellulite photos. I remember Perez Hilton being particularly cruel. As a naturally skinny teen she had probably never worked out in her life before those photos were published.

Weren’t there rumors constantly about how awful she was on set, being rude, late, playing the diva, not playing well with others or am I confusing her with someone else?

I hate to break it to her, but she is NOT that talented. I have seen a couple off beat movies with her and a few spots she did on series tv (A really bad performance on Law and Order:SVU) and of course a few episodes of O.C. and thought she was kind of bad. She SHOULD be grateful for the opportunities O.C afforded her. That part could have gone to someone more appreciative if she feels it was sloop beneath her.

She looks great nevertheless! Better than she did a decade or so ago! The weight on her is good! She should go back to her theatre roots and re establish her skills. I didn’t know she was British. if not go to NYC go back to London to brush up on her talent. I’m sure she could get back on track–esp now that she’s older and more mature. She’s giving GREAT advice about keeping ones private life private. That way they will look at your work and NOT who you’re dating or care about if you have cellulite or not. As a matter a fact OLDER Hollywood should take this same advice—like Joe Manganiello, whom I like alot, but I think he’s been exposing himself and his new relationship a bit too much lately.

Wow, that IMDB page is impressive for someone I’ve only heard of on this site (I didn’t watch the OC but I’m not living under a rock). Do I feel bad for her? I dunno. She’s a working actress, but it sounds like she went through a brief period of living large that she couldn’t sustain, and and now she’s a struggling working actress.

Why why why aren’t young actors given more guidance on investing and planning for the future? Why aren’t more of them at least guided towards those mail order film schools to develop skills in video editing or something that would keep them feed during the lean years so they can maintain some dignity of self-sufficiency?

Oh, they ARE given plenty of advice on investing and planning for the future. Most actors have business managers to track residual payments, union dues, handle home buying, etc. No doubt she was advised not to spend recklessly, but that doesn’t mean they follow advice of professionals.

Hollywood would have forgiven (or even celebrated) her for being an entitled brat, a druggie, even a bad actress, etc… What ruined her career is that she gained weight. Sad but true. If she gets back to “Hollywood thin”, she’s young enough to still get work in tv.

Mischa’s greatest asset was unquestionably her face. She was SO lovely, but the drinking and the drugs stole much of her beauty. And without that, she’s just another ‘okay’ actress with an attitude problem. The weight gain definitely doesn’t help, but that isn’t the only reason things aren’t working out for her.

I’ve always thought her face was so beautiful too (at least when it isn’t puffed up from booze) and never got why some people couldn’t see it. It’s true that she doesn’t have the kind of body that can pull off any extra weight though.

Mischa had to be hospitalized Memorial Weekend of ’09 – she tried to play it off as a reaction to a root canal, but the word was that she did so many drugs at Nicole Richie’s annual BBQ that Mischa basically lost it and had to be taken away in an ambulance. It wasaround that time that all of that crowd was unravelling…

Signs that you made some bad choices in your life:
1) You dated Brandon “Greasy Bear” Davis
2) You were friends with Paris, Nicole, Lindsay, etc
3) After breaking up with Davis you dated Cisco Adler for a long time
4) Your death on your show was actually considered a selling point to get viewers back.

Loved season 1 of the The OC but she was easily the weakest actor out of the core four. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if a different actress had been Marissa. But maybe I just don’t like the pretty girl perpetual victim types (see: Peyton Sawyer).

I could understand her shade for The O.C if something really horrible happened on set…but other than that…shut up. I mean, you wouldn’t have even gotten those film roles if it hadn’t been for the success of The O.C. Be grateful that it did (even for a short period) opened doors to you.

All these comments says it all. When I first read the article in US Weekly the first thought in my mind was Adam, Benjamin, and Rachel Bilson would agree too that Mischa should have been skipped out of the casting knowing her drinking, parting, and fights with the cast, writers and crew. “The O.C. ” is the one item that made her famous in the first place and out of the four main young people of the show, she is the only one who has not found appreciable success afterward. What she said is I think is a direct insult to the cast in crew because they Ben, Adam, and Rachel gave a damn about the job they had and had to deal with her antics and later the bridge burning from chiding fans for taking an interest in the tenth anniversary of “The O.C.” to saying I regret the “The O.C.”. The cast must be rolling their eyes at her latest statement considering her DUI, her business failure, her old blue car that kept breaking down and her now foreclosing nine million or so dollar mansion that she has being drying to off load for years and of course her grand view of movie stardom. Enjoy making E cigarette smoking sexy, Rachel Bilson’s Magnum Ice Cream is on me!

Back in 2010, she did an episode of Fearne Cotton’s show (Fearne Cotton is a British TV personality). You can Google to find the episode, but basically Mischa Barton behaved very, very similarly to how Lindsay Lohan acted on her TV show- Mischa was hours late, blew off appointments, and when she did show up, she gave a lot of excuses and non-answers about why her career fell off.
Lots of similarities between those two.

She was so terrible in The O.C.! My friends and I were obsessed with that show (ummm, as mid-20 somethings, cringe) and I own the first season on DVD. Her wooden acting and odd mannerisms – she never seemed comfortable – brought the whole show down. Remember the scene in Season 2 (I think?) where she’s laying out in the backyard with Julie and she throws the deck chair into the pool?

And, as said upthread, her off-set behavior brought her down. I think there was a blind item somewhere about her and her mom in an elevator and she was just berating her and acting incredibly immature. She’s lucky she had The O.C. and here she is trashing it.

At he peak of the OC season there was an interview in magazine where she puts down her male co-stars. It was incredibly rude and insensitive. She was such a gorgeous girl and sometimes can still look pretty good but she has a black heart.

Of course she’s a silly woman, but I also can totally see her being influenced by that crowd she was hanging out with at the time; in particular, being egged on to quit (like by Nicole Ritchie/Paris Hilton, the greasy bear?) the OC because she’s oh-so-wonderful an actress and Barton totally believing it, while the Ritchie, and Greasy Bear, and Paris just laughed at her for being so dumb and spineless. It was such a dumb move to quit then, and then Barton just wasted her time for years and went off the rails, pretending/deluding herself that she didn’t just make some really horrible decisions. I really totally believe she trashed her career by listening to friends who weren’t really her friends and then it was too late. Not that her attitude helped, but I can still see how smarter frenemies would have some fun with that and laugh at her failure.
However, wasn’t there an interview with one of the older actors from the O.C. who said ALL of the younger castmembers were out of control on that set? On the other hand, looks like Barton is the only one who didn’t learn her lessson and/or who just dind’t have enough friends and talent to recover.

It’s the too young too rich thing again. Jennifer Aniston’s ex who used to be on the OC too said they were all brats. Barton’s (massive) BHH house is going into receivership because she can’t afford the payments. I think it was bought for around 4, 5 million in her heyday. All those silly advisors who convinced her to get such a massive mortgage…even Kendall Jenner made a smarter choice by going with a small property. It’s funny to think she was that little sick kid in The Six Sense a million years ago. She looks like she hasn’t taken care of herself and she hasn’t even bothered to get her teeth fixed. She smiles like Kirsten Dunst.

She seems to be resistant to learn from her own mistakes, and still cultivates that attitude of superiority that brought her to fall. Some gratitude and humility would suit her well- but nothing can make up for her lack of talent, and charisma. There are so many far more talented young actresses around that don’t look as worn as she does by now. I can’t pitty her, she’s old enough to understand her responsibilities.

I like Mischa for some reason, although she has questionable taste in clothes. I think she got caught up with that whole party crowd when she was younger. But she’s always stayed pretty quiet and doesn’t seem to be a famewhore.

I am LOLing though about her thinking she had some film career. She’s an ok actress, but no one would have ever known her name if not for The OC.